Hard work and mystery

It's been a busy month with school holidays and sick children but although I haven't found the time to post I have been hard at work on the allotment.

It really seems to have paid off digging the plot over thoroughly and removing as much as possible of the pernicious weeds. Some are coming up, including the dreaded bindweed, But these have mostly been small weak specimens that are not too difficult to dig up and remove. Another plot holder just roughly dug his plot and covered it in straw and now there is a forest of bindweed shooting up all over it! (Thank goodness it's a few plots away from mine).

I've now finished digging over my plot and have been preparing the beds for planting next month. I've dug trenches for my french beans and planting pits for my courgettes and outdoor cucumbers, all of which are growing merrily on my kitchen windowsill. I've also covered the beds with a straw mulch to keep down weeds and retain water.

From the end of March I've been direct sowing seeds and was disappointed that nothing seemed to be growing. Last week on closer inspection I found that they have germinated, along with a good crop of annual weeds. So I've been busy weeding, thinning out seedlings and sowing more. I'm trying to sow secessionly every 2 - 3 weeks so that everything isn't ready at the same time.

I've planted a strawberry bed, thanks to my mum giving me some strawberry runners. I need to get a few more plants to fill it and think about netting. I'm told the local birds will gobble up the lot given half a chance.

I got my partner to turn the compost heap (there are advantages to being head gardener!) and was pleased to see it is breaking down well. My first load of Bokashi waste seems to have worked ok too. It was covered in the right kind of mould (white and fluffy, not green) and smelled like it was fermenting. I added it to the heap as it was being turned.

Finally we end with two mysteries.

My mystery tree is in full blossom. It's had lots of admirers but no one seems to know what it is. It's probably a crab apple, but hopefully it's something else that we can actually eat.

The other mystery are my neighbours to the left, who I've never met. I'm on my plot at different times and days of the week and in 4 months I've never seen them. Every now and then there has been signs of work being done, more so recently, but no sign of anyone doing it. I have a theory that they are gardening at night.

Spud-I-like

Today I planted some of my seed potatoes which have been chitting on my kitchen windowsill for the last month. Chitting is basically exposing them to light so that they start to develop shoots before they are planted. This gives them a head start and is said to produce a heavier crop.

In the box are Epicure, Ulster Sceptre and Salad Blue. The first two are new potatoes, known as earlies because they mature faster. The third, as the name suggests, is a salad potato which has a blue/purple flesh.

I've been working out a planting plan for my plot and realised that the crops I have already selected fill all the beds I have prepared on the left side. So although I was intending to cultivate only half the plot this year I have decided to go ahead and use some of the right side too, I hope I'm not being too ambitious! I've been able to put in a few hours over the last week and dug over a large area for the potatoes (removing loads more bindweed - grrrr!).

My plot neighbour, who is the Allotment Association secretary, recommended preparing trenches for the potatoes similar to the method for runner beans. I've been warned before that the soil dries out in warm weather and she said this helps to retain water and nutrients and gives a much better crop.

So over the last two days I have dug five trenches, lined them with newspaper, then straw (free used bedding delivered by the local stables) and piled in compost from my bin on the plot.

Trenches in progress...

And today I finally got to plant the potatoes (helped by my son).